Publication Date: Friday, February 13, 2004
Districts budget outlook worsens
Districts budget outlook worsens
(February 13, 2004) School board must make additional cuts
by Rachel Metz
The school district will have to cut an additional $800,000 to $900,000 from next year's budget, school board members confirmed Thursday.
The latest hit is due to a lowered growth projection for the county's property tax, which was already slumping at .23 percent, according to school board president Cathy Kroymann.
Kroymann said the district learned about the cuts Wednesday from Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone. The district discussed the matter with school administrators and heads of both the teachers and classified staff unions Thursday.
A closed-session school board meeting is also scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. to consider the budget.
The district has already slashed $1.5 million from next year's budget due to low property tax revenue projections, increases in employee benefit costs and rising student enrollment.
The $1.5 million in cuts is half of what the district expected to cut from next year's budget. Prior to the latest announcement, the district was banking on the combined efforts of two district fund-raising groups - the All Schools Fund and the Palo Alto Foundation for Education -- to fill the remaining gap.
Proposed reductions were presented at a school board meeting Tuesday night. Cuts included reducing under-filled classes at Palo Alto and Gunn high schools, reducing an assistant principal position at each high school and reducing per-student funding at high schools and elementary schools.
"I wish I did not have to bring any of these forward," Superintendent Mary Frances Callan said Tuesday.
Although the district planned to reassign any employees whose jobs are reduced or eliminated, layoffs are still possible. This could include up to one teacher and two classified employees, district assistant superintendent Marilyn Cook said.
If any teachers are laid off, they must be notified by March 15.
"(To) no one person are we going to say, 'You're the one, you're going to bear the brunt.' The moment we do that we may as well circle the wagons and shoot each other," Callan said.
To show possibilities of further cost-cutting pain, Callan also presented a list Tuesday if the fundraising groups' efforts to gather $1.5 million fail. This list includes closing an elementary school, deleting class size reduction for several grades and cutting teachers and administrators.
The board is expected to vote on the cuts presented Tuesday at its Feb. 24 meeting. It's also anticipated the board will discuss the additional cuts at that meeting, as well as at future meetings.
Cuts proposed Tuesday night:
*reduce high school funding by $15 per student and elementary school funding by $20 per student, saving $143,939
*cut a high school assistant principal at Palo Alto and Gunn High Schools, saving $219,824
*reduce elective classes at each high school, saving $143,482
*cut funding to the district's summer school program and collect fees for it through the city, saving $54,000
*reduce funding to its information technology budget, saving $70,000
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